standing in his stirrups, and appears to exult in the plan he has formed for their future entertainment. You see the group gently passing forward — all are in motion—yet too well satisfied with each other to be eager for their journey's end. The features of each individual are touched with the most happy discrimination of character, and prove the painter to have studied the human heart with as much attention as, and not less successfully than, the poet.

"The intelligent group is rendered still more interesting by the charm of colouring, which, though simple, is strong, and most harmoniously distributed throughout the picture. The landscape has a deep-toned brightness that accords most happily with the figures; and the painter has ingeniously contrived to give a value to a common scene and very ordinary forms, that could hardly be found, by unlearned eyes, in the natural objects. He has expressed, too, with great vivacity and truth, the freshness of morning at that season when nature herself is most fresh and blooming—the spring; and it requires no great stretch of fancy to imagine we perceive the influence of it on the cheeks of the Fair Wife of Bath, and her rosy companions, the Monk and Friar.

"In respect to the execution of the various parts of this pleasing design, it is not too much praise to say, that it is wholly free from that vice which the painters term manner; and it has this peculiarity beside, which I do not remember to have seen in any picture, ancient or modern, that it bears no mark of the period in which it was painted, but might very well pass for the work of some able artist of the time of Chaucer. This effect is not, I believe, the result of any association of ideas connected with the costume, but appears in a primitive simplicity, and the total absence of all affectation, either of colour or pencilling.

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Having attempted to describe a few of the beauties of this captivating performance, it remains only for me to mention one great defect-the picture is, notwithstanding appearances, a modern one. But if you can divest yourself of the

general prejudice that exists against contemporary talents, you will see a work that would have done honour to any school at any period.

"I am, dear Sir, &c.

"To Richard Cumberland, Esq."

"JOHN HOPPNER.

Though not given in this manner under their hand, there were few among the first ranks of art but bore testimony to the merits of this extraordinary performance at the time of its appearance. Mr. West, then the President of the Royal Academy, was lavish in his encomiums upon the figures; and Mr. Turner pointed out a passage of peculiar excellence in the landscape: it was the gradation preserved from a bright sunny spring morning to the coming shower, apparently falling in the distance. "That is an effect," observed Mr. Turner, "frequently attempted, but seldom executed with so much success."

With such testimonials and encouragement, a subscription was set on foot for a print to be engraved after the painting. Independently of the interest which Mr. Cromek, the proprietor, had in the venture, there could hardly have been found an individual, who, possessing at the same time talents as an artist and knowledge of the world as a man, was better qualified to render such an undertaking successful. In the course of the enterprise, he necessarily found himself frequently called upon to enlighten the ignorant. Among other places to which he took the picture, in order to obtain subscribers for the print, was Edinburgh, where he remained for a fortnight without the addition to his list of a single name. fortunately happened, however, that before the patience of Mr. Cromek was quite exhausted, or the picture withdrawn, Mr. Jeffrey visited the room, and was so delighted, that he invited Mr. Cromek to breakfast with him next morning. At that breakfast a party of the distinguished inhabitants was present, all of whom immediately subscribed; and their example was followed to the number of about forty. A circumstance

It

subsequently happened to the picture, which was at the time very distressing to the owner. On its arrival at Manchester, it was discovered that the panel on which it was painted had received an injury in the carriage: a crack appeared at one end, which it was feared might extend the whole length, so as to separate it altogether; and it was thought advisable to consult a joiner as to the way in which the evil might be remedied. A person was found who readily undertook the task; and who, hardly allowing any time for pause or consideration, took a broad chisel from his bag, but was suddenly stopped by his employer's desiring to know in what way he meant to proceed. Why to split it from end to end," was the answer. Poor Cromek stood for a while in consternation at the proposal; but the joiner knew his business, and insisted upon the operation. Convinced of its necessity, a reluctant consent was given; and away went the panel, completely divided. "My feelings on the occasion," said Mr. Cromek to a friend," cannot be described: it was like a shock of electricity through my frame." The parts, however, were skilfully united, and without injury to the picture, which was soon after put into the hands of the engraver.

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From circumstances with which all who know any thing of such speculations are familiar, the completion of the plate was long delayed. The two engravers originally employed, Louis and Philip Schiavonetti, as well as Mr. Cromek himself, paid the debt of nature during its progress; and it was eventually finished by Mr. Heath. The characters are well preserved; but it has been remarked, that there is a heaviness throughout, which might have been avoided, and which, probably, would have been avoided, had it not been for the calculating system of a large return in the number of impressions, which has of late years been so detrimental to the art of engraving.

The painting was afterwards bought by Hart Davis, Esq. A copy, with some variations, was made for a gentleman in Yorkshire of the name of Benson, who also purchased Mr. Stothard's "Characters from Shakspeare." This painting

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has less of locality in its subject than the "Canterbury Pilgrims," and is "of imagination all compact." Like that, however, it is a lengthened composition (if the term may be allowed), a form which certainly requires great skill to arrange and display the variety so essential to the picturesque. From left to right the characters follow in order, from comedy to tragedy; like the keys of an instrument, passing from the light and playful notes of the treble, through the tenor, to the deepest tones of the bass; yet all, like a well-conducted piece of music, is in perfect harmony. A rainbow divides this pictorial drama at a point where it is appropriately introduced — the Tempest; and in connection with the figures of Prospero, Miranda, and Ariel. Among the comic groups, the figures of Falstaff and the Prince are conspicuous; and the fat Knight's "By the Lord I know ye as well as he that made ye" is incapable of being mistaken. Celia, Rosalind, and Touchstone form an admirable group, a composition complete in all its parts. Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch are, in point of humour and character, upon the very verge of caricature, especially Sir Toby; still there is no violence done to truth and nature. But, perhaps, the masterpiece of expression will be found in Ophelia, to whose frantic wildness the sad sympathy of Hamlet presents a striking contrast. Lady Macbeth, with the phantoms of horror floating before her troubled vision, is also a very important feature in this work of imaginative and intellectual painting.

The Decameron of Boccacio supplied Mr. Stothard largely with the romantic scenes of ladies and lovers strolling, as vagrant fancy or accident directed, amid rustling groves, running streams, and sunny knolls, which were his especial favourites. Amidst all those wanderings of youth and beauty there is nothing but perfect innocence exhibited; the sun never shone on such clusters of pure and lovely creatures. No one can look upon them, and say that thoughts unworthy of innocence are within them: the shame and sin of the fall are not upon them; and we long to be of their company.

Expression is one of the marked and distinguishing fea

tures of Mr. Stothard's works. One of the most perfect specimens of this high quality is to be found in a painting by him from the song of "Auld Robin Gray." The point of time chosen by the artist is when

"My father urged me sair; my mother could na speak,

But she looked in my face till I thought my heart would break."

They who are old enough to recollect and to have participated in the effect which those words used to have on the audience when sung by Mrs. Kennedy at Vauxhall, will experience a renewal of their emotion when gazing on this exquisite gem.

The largest painting ever executed by Mr. Stothard is the grand staircase at Burleigh, the seat of the Marquis of Exeter. This splendid work was commenced in the year 1798, and occupied the artist for the four summer months of four successive years. The subject is Intemperance; the principal group consisting of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, surrounded by sylphs, bacchanals, &c. The Egyptian queen is dropping the pearl into the goblet of the enamoured warrior, while Cupids are running away with his armour. Let those who affect to undervalue the English school of painting compare this noble production with

"The sprawling saints of Verrio and Laguerre."

Mr. Stothard also designed the ceiling of the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh; and, among other commissions, he was called upon to furnish designs for the basso-relievos of the grand staircase of Buckingham Palace, in which style of decorative ornament no man was better skilled. His fancy was luxuriant, and at the same time his taste correct. In this kind of art, generally known by the name of arabesque, where almost every description of incongruity is allowed, the great genius of Raphael sometimes indulged. To an artist it is a relaxation, like that to a literary man of reading a romance after grave and laborious studies.

Few artists, whose inclinations have led them to fix their